


Archetype Story

by smolreddragon



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 07:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10509435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smolreddragon/pseuds/smolreddragon
Summary: This is a story of literary archetypes from a religious stance. A young man falls into a coma and dies, falling into Hades, but receives a second-chance.





	

“I cannot clearly say how I had entered the wood; I was so full of sleep just at the point where I abandoned the true path.” – Dante’s Inferno  
Pain. A beautiful word. A beautiful feeling. Pain weakens. Pain reminds us that we are easily broken. Fragile. Mortal. Pain drives the soul to unthinkable heights. I know what pain feels like. It festers. Whether hope is drawn out of me or the fact that being on my own should scare me does not make me want to succumb to pain in the least.  
I watched the unnaturally bright ceiling lights pass me by as I was wheeled into what I remember to be a hospital. My vision is fading and I reach for my mother, someone, anyone. Concerned faces passed over my continuously blurring vision, until I could not see anything anymore.  
I must have been rendered unconscious. Maybe God had called me from that Hell on Earth. That I had died. Small tendrils of thought brushed against my battered consciousness. What happened before I blacked out? God, I don’t know!  
Wait. I remember.  
My eyes were slits as they forced their way open. Their pupils constricted as the light of an overhead streetlight illuminated a crimson apartment door numbered 555.  
My senses slowly became less numb, and the ground became extremely uncomfortable.  
“Oww…” My muscles groaned as I got to my hands and knees and made an effort to push myself up. I could feel tears starting to form in the corners of my eyes. My throat tightened as I gazed upwards. Icy rain pelted my face with a familiar vigor.  
I faced a black door, its obsidian face towered over me.  
Turning the steel knob, the door opened with a deafening creak. The hallway I was met with seemed to have been burned to ashes, a nearby couch was blackened, as was a dresser.  
A tattered teddy bear caught my eye. I squinted further to get a better view. It was a brown bear with a red bowtie that was partially scorched, and an eye missing from the plush face. My eyes widened. A hand- a human hand was attached to the bear’s paw. It was a small hand, a little girl’s by the appearance of it. The fingers twitched slightly, as if the limb’s body was still keeping it alive. The rest of the arm disappeared underneath the charred rubble. Kneeling, I licked my lips in anticipation. Glass cracked underfoot, and I started to dig frantically. I felt my features change as I realized it was not attached to a living body. I reeled backward and sprawled out on the ground, taken aback at the sight of the mutilated appendage. It had not ceased its convulsions. I put the back of my hand to my mouth in an attempt to stifle the urge to vomit. Breathing hard and mind swimming, I tried not to think of how this poor, unfortunate child died. I began to salivate; my tongue was thick with the liquid. What the hell happened to this child?  
I took a few steps forward, then hesitated. No noise. Still no signs of life. That was what I thought before a hand snaked out from behind me and latched itself over my mouth. I tried to sink my teeth into the cold flesh. It was too late however, my vision had begun to go white and fade after being struck with yet another bony hand. Another blow to my gut. My breath escaped me. Before I could recover, another blow was assigned to my left shoulder. I sagged, only for a moment before I was clipped across the jaw, white sparks mottled my vision and I stumbled backwards, tasting blood.  
What I saw next was too horrifying for me to explain in full detail. It was one of those, “you-had-to-be-there-to-believe-it” moments. Reaching and groping the air uselessly were about a dozen hands that seemed to… not have belonged to any number of bodies. The “creatures” reached out no further than their forearms, as if they were restrained by invisible bodies to which they have been assigned. Was I hallucinating? No… no, I felt them grab at me… clawing me.  
I blinked. They were gone. Just like that.  
What had compelled me to move forward was something that came from the very depths of illogical reason. I took a few cautious steps forward, but heard no scratching on the walls or shadowy spindles dancing upon them, signaling the hands were still present. I was met with the stench of mold and urine, which lingered even when I exhaled.  
“How’d you like that, Mikey?”  
I whipped my head around, the voice nearly causing me to jump out of my skin. My eyesight warped and I was standing in front of a beautiful darkly-garbed man, no- an angel. He had probing, crimson eyes, a stark contrast against his snow- white skin. “I’m Lux. I already know… everything about you,” his voiced rasped; he sounded like an extreme asthmatic, his tongue lolled in and out of his mouth, quickly ruining the pristine image of the beautiful creature he appeared to be. “But let’s just say I’m also the anti-you, if you still are stubborn enough to think that you’re too… pure to be down here with me.” I could hear roars and moans coming from behind the entity; demonic creatures scrabbled across the molten marble floor behind him. Their disjointed, malformed bodies twisted and untwisted in unholy gaits.  
He sauntered closer to where I stood, feeling smaller and more exposed with each step he took. “Of all the most wonderful things to be seen in this world, the best, and only that, lay in the periphery of the worldly, the superficial, the mundane, the worthless, and the duplicitous, wretched, horrid, loathsome, hated, despicable, sickening, VAPID reality in which we cling to. Pardon me.” He grinned, smoke trailing from his nostrils. “Listen… Michael,” Lux inhaled a sour breath and exhaled. “It’s not that I hate humanity. Humanity disgusts me for its constant squabbling to win hierarchal conflicts for power that exists only in the imaginations of those involved, and the pointless use of lives in order to sustain a paltry level of comfort. Selfish, selfish, selfish is what that is called. That, is what gets you in a place like this. I got the short end of the stick, as you can see.” He turned and gave me a view of his back, protrusions that used to support wings were nothing but burnt, and scabbed- over stubs.  
“I don’t understand”- I was cut off as Lux raised a single clawed finger. My mouth was no longer under my control. “If I may speak?” he grinned, pinching the air with his index finger and thumb, as if he was physically holding my lips shut. “This is what you don’t get Mikey,” he glowered. “You humans are all selfish. Why else are you here? Looks like you’ve got some explaining to do, don’t you?” Lux teased, his nearly hairless tail curling inwards and outwards in a sick glee. “Ready to learn what selfishness does a person?”  
The area around me turned dark and my head began to throb violently. Television static and indiscernible voices resounding in my ears. I regained my stature only to come to realize that I was in a new location altogether… again.  
My skin crawled as I fixed my eyes on a slimy serpentine animal. My sight trailed along its length until I looked upon its face, a depressed looking elderly man, the skin pinching in many places around the eyes and the sides of its mouth. The snakelike creature must have been in this place for many years, because clinging to the slime on its scaly body, were thick, yellowed cobwebs.  
It took a few deep breaths and it spoke to me. “What have I done? Do you even know why you are in this place, human?” He breathed slowly as if to reserve what remained of his withering existence. “Azazel did it wrong. You are with Azazel in this place now.”  
The saddened creature known as Azazel uncoiled his scaly, pulsing body and regarded me with an extreme distaste. “I saw my friends and compatriots. The people I have loved my whole existence… died. I had to watch them kill. This terrible war was nothing more than a feud over differences; the battlefield was littered with bodies innumerable, the Sea of Glass turned red with blood. Over something so simple: freedom. This senseless war with ramifications that will be felt and talked about throughout the times ahead was over something so simple, as to who do we owe our allegiance to? Did we owe it to filthy mongrels that toll in the dirt, or to ourselves and our right to do what we deemed was best? No one should tell us that those who shall be slaves are more so. Those sorts of laws should not govern us. We should govern us. So, over the simple idea the war began. We roared as Legion as we stood up. We picked up our arms and fought. We perforated the bodies of our brethren who were now our enemies with heavy, anger laden hearts. We could see in each other’s eyes. Brother against brother, blood against blood. I remember facing my brother… Michael on the battlefield, so many words of love and loss, on both of our dry and tired lips as we attempted to kill one another. Face to face, blow against blow, each one making us weep and though we fought viciously, I found myself the victor, impaling him on my blade and holding him close as I wept and his final words: “Being though you are wrong, I forgive you.” I wondered: would I have said the same thing had it been my chest leaking blood upon that battlefield?”  
Azazel’s eyes dimmed with a strange melancholy. “Though there were many that fought for our side in the Civil war we did not have the numbers, for every one of us, there were two of them! For every rebel, two loyalists! And we could not fight those odds. I… I lost hope. I watched us fall on the battlefield one after the other. My last memory, of the war, before I finally fell, was hearing our leader. He was on a mound of loyalist bodies fighting tooth and nail against their general. Our leader roared in defiance like a dragon until finally… he too fell.”  
Azazel looked at me, his fangs bared to the gums in languish and annoyance. “Now, we lie here, in this place. For doing what I had thought was right. I find myself languishing here over killing my brothers for our differing beliefs. Here on this hell, we will stay until our kingdom comes, while we fell like stars, swept from the sky by a dragon’s tail. Here… where we fell… like lightning from heaven.” 

I opened my mouth in sympathy. “I- I’m sorry.” As I said that, a glint of something metallic appeared in the corner of my eye. Next to Azazel’s puckered maw laid a small camera amongst a heap of yellowed newspaper. I picked it up and viewed the screen. There was a file underneath titled “5:55PM Dorothy’s Surprise.” I played it.  
The camera seemed to be standing on the rim of a bathtub filled halfway with water.  
A man’s face materialized in the shot. “Hi, everyone. John here. I’m going to give my wife a surprise. She thinks she can go out and do whatever it is she wants with that other guy.” His feet shuffled as he positioned the camera. His shirt had dark stains, some oil, some crusted over with old tomato sauce as it appeared. He moved and the frame pictured a woman in a bathtub, yellowed water filled halfway up the sides. Her eyes were wild and her mouth was duct taped shut.  
Some shuffling was heard and glass was being broken. Then, the bathtub shook and the camera was almost knocked from where it had been placed. The woman was submerged in the water, makeup and tears streaming down her face.  
In the brief moments that followed, the man’s arms could be seen… holding her under. The woman’s feet kicked out in futile desperation and knocked the camera to the bathroom floor. More thrashing was heard until the tape finally ended.  
I stared at the blank screen of the camera for some time after. I started to feel nauseas again. I put the camera down and continued around the decaying fallen angel. I groped through the thick darkness and felt something spherical. A doorknob.  
This room was different. It was the hallway before, only… much cleaner; the burnt furniture was no longer burnt. I blinked and scanned the area. The couch was occupied by a porcelain doll, and the dresser was filled with a variety of picture frames, but no pictures were inside.  
“…it’s been too long…ten days”  
I grabbed my head in my hands and clenched my teeth. I know that voice.  
“…too long… now’s not the time…”  
I could hear my pulse ringing in my ears.  
“Can’t I see him again?”  
My mother?  
I looked up and was no longer where I was. I looked out a window with iron bars over the outside of it. The wind was howling through the trees and rain poured out of the sky. The sun barely peeked through the clouds.  
I nearly jumped out of my skin when an alarm sounded through the tiny room. 5:55…  
That… number again.  
I looked up again. Back in the hallway. I got up and walked before turning left. An even longer stretch of hallway was before me. I passed a door. The bathroom. I looked inside. A toilet, sink, towel rack, and… the same bathtub in the video. I gazed into the black water at my reflection…  
“Time’s up, Michael!”  
“You’re insane!” I spat as Lux’s regal body came into view again.  
Sanity, HA! A creature wholly wrought of comparison and worthless society. I, for one am not insane, but who am I to say that? In your eyes, I’m probably the foulest of beings, so there is no basis for which the truth might be laid.” Lux’s eyes narrowed and he cocked his head. “I’ve noticed that humans have ways of dinning things into their heads so as not to forget what they stand for. But what do people like yourself really stand for? Power? Justice? Good? You all talk yourselves up like you all do such good things in your society but you can’t even defend your stance. You know why?” Lux took a few staggering steps toward me and leaned in close, close enough to smell rot on his breath. “Because you can’t. Stance is not real.”  
A crash sounded just above my head and the rush of wings whistled in my ears. An angel with glistening wings like liquid silver sailed down and landed with a heavy thud in front of me, celestial chainmail jingling and a sword like sapphire strapped to his side.  
Lux loosed a gargled laugh. “What a surprise to see you on this side of town, Gabriel!”  
The platinum-haired angel kept a calm posture, but spoke with a voice that boomed, cutting through the heat that the waves of heat quivered through the foul air. “What is right and what is wrong; that is decided by the human heart!” Gabriel retaliated. “Let mankind choose!”  
Lux’s face twisted in rage. “What is a heart?! I don’t have one. He took that away from me.”  
“Every single human life is different and unique; special even. Although many are falsehoods. That’s why we check you all out to see if you got some… issues. Every single human life has a dark side. The nasty part that lusts for pain and despair. It is only natural. You are only human. You are but sinning beasts of the Earth, longing to be freed from all torment and lamentation. So why do you long for pain and despair when you want so desperately to be freed from it?” Gabriel “I’m going to give you a choice, now that you’re safe.”  
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which the human race can be categorized. The one is to disbelieve in Evil’s existence. The other option is to believe, and to feel an excessive and obsessive interest in it.”  
“The sentient portion of this planet may be just a bit more sensitive to peoples’ lifestyles which enables a better view on justice. But sanity can only be defined by means of an omnipotent being. Mere humans cannot judge other humans. They can try and they fail all the same. “  
“What someone considers the light may actually be dark to someone else. To want the light without ever knowing the dark, I cannot do that. If I said I’ve never seen both sides would be an utterance of a lie.” Gabriel shook his head, his golden brow furrowing. “I almost became a victim to the lies Lux spewed to his followers. I knew better, and this Celestial War started.”  
“Before the dawn of time, before the creation of things seen and unseen, we were. He fashioned his throne on a sea of glass, brilliant beyond imagining. He created us, numerous as the sands of the sea. So we stood, on the sea of glass, singing and shouting praises at our arrival into our newly created bodies. Raphael, Uriel, Lux, and I were appointed over all the other cherubs as their guardians over the sea of glass. He had not yet created the angel that would surpass all others in splendor and authority. He would be clothed in shimmering color and have wings like no other. He would be called Lucifer, Son of the Bright and Morning Star. He led the praising of the Most High for many millennia.”  
“The Most High would create his most expert masterpiece; a magnum opus, if you will. He would create an expanse of space, time, and dimension for which this new creation would dwell. We stood in wonder as He breathed life into His new creation, the likes of which could never compare to anything he had created before. It was made in the likeness of God, the spirit being clothed with flesh. He instructed Lucifer, along with a third of his hosts to depart to Earth. However, Lucifer was unsure and uneasy about this new creation, and seeds of contempt began to enter him. In heaven, unbeknownst to Lucifer, the angels would serve under this new crowned creation: mankind. Amidst the celebration, I was sent to deliver this message to Lucifer on Earth. Lucifer was enraged, not understanding why a beautiful angel such as himself, would have to serve a creature lower than himself. I rebuked him for his poor judgement against the command of the Most High, but he lashed back, saying ‘I will ascend to a position that is higher than the throne of the Most High and I will rule as I see fit. It is beneath me to serve that inferior being you call ‘man’. I will not obey Your decree, nor will my angels with me. If it is man that you want me to serve, than I would rather serve myself. We are not conquered. This is but our beginning. I am Lucifer, the Bright and Morning Star. Lucifer succeeds in deceiving Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. With the fall of man, Lucifer is permitted into the courts of Heaven, and confronts God, demanding justice over the fallen human race now tainted by sin. You must suffer the same eternal separation from the Most High just as the sons of darkness have to, should you choose to keep dwelling in your sin.”  
You want to enhance your life, your struggle. For it is through struggle that one remains strong. Like our eyes, our hearts can also adjust to the darkness. I winced as He shifted on His throne, His overwhelmingly bright purple robe billowing and sparkling with the movement.  
Pain. A beautiful word. A beautiful feeling. Pain weakens. Pain reminds us that we are easily broken. Fragile. Mortal. Pain drives the soul to unthinkable heights. I know what pain feels like. It festers. Whether hope is drawn out of me or the fact that being on my own should scare me does not make me want to succumb to pain in the least. It reminds me that I can fight back and that I still stand a chance.


End file.
